their star player from the football team. So they’d tried paying off the girl. When she’d refused money, they’d expelled her and labeled her crazy. So just as she had done with Margaret O’Hannigan today, Josie had gotten Donny Peterson to confess.
“Josie...” Her father whispered her name, as if unable to believe it. Then he looked down at the little boy, who stared up at him in puzzlement.
Poor CJ had been through so much the past few days. He’d met so many people and had been in so much danger, he had to be thoroughly confused and exhausted. He whispered, too, to his grandfather, “He’s a bad man, Grampa.”
“Your mama and grandpa are the bad ones,” Donald Peterson insisted. “My Donny was a star, and they couldn’t handle it. They had to bring him down, had to destroy him.”
After the confession and the subsequent charges, Donny Peterson had killed himself, shortly before the trial was to begin, shortly before Josie’s brakes were cut. Why hadn’t she considered that those attempts might have been because of Donny? Why had she automatically thought the worst of Brendan? Maybe because she’d already been feeling guilty and hadn’t wanted to admit to how much to blame she’d been.
“And that is why I’m going to destroy them,” Donald continued.
“You’re a bad man,” CJ said again, and he kicked the man in the shin.
Josie tried to grab her son before the man could strike back. But he was already swinging and his hand struck Josie’s cheek, sending her stumbling back onto her father’s bed. Stanley Jessup caught her shoulders and then pulled her and his grandson close, as if his arms alone could protect them.
CJ wriggled in their grasp as he tried to break free to fight some more. “My daddy told me to p’tect you,” he reminded Josie. “I have to p’tect my mommy until my daddy gets here.”
Donald Peterson shook his head. “Your daddy’s not coming, son.”
“My daddy’s a hero,” CJ said. “He’ll be here. He always saves us.”
“It is a daddy’s job to protect his kids,” Donald agreed, his voice cracking with emotion. “But your daddy’s busy arresting some bad people.”
“You’re bad.”
“And he’s too far away to get here to help you.”
Tears began to streak down CJ’s face, and his shoulders shook as fear overcame him. He’d been so brave for her—so brave for his father. But now he was scared.
And Josie could offer him no words of comfort. As Donald Peterson had stated, there was no way that Brendan could reach them in time to save them.
They had to figure out a way to save themselves. Her father shifted on his bed and pressed something cold and metallic against Josie’s hip. A gun. Had he had it under his pillow?
After the assault, she couldn’t blame him for wanting to be prepared if his attacker tried again. But Donald’s gun barrel was trained on CJ. And she knew—to make her father and her feel the loss he felt—he would shoot her son first. Could she grab the gun, aim and fire before he killed her little boy?
* * *
THE CAMERAS HAD still been running inside the van, and they’d caught the plate on the black SUV that had driven off with Brendan’s son and the woman he loved. The vehicle had a GPS that had led them right to its location in the parking garage of the hospital.
When they’d arrived, Brendan hadn’t gone down to check it out. He already knew where they were. So he ducked under the whirling FBI helicopter blades and ran across the roof where just a few nights ago he’d nearly been shot. Once he was inside the elevator, he pushed the button for the sixth floor.
It seemed to take forever to get where he needed to be.
His mom was right. He should have taken Josie here. He never should have let her and CJ out of his sight. And if he wasn’t already too late, he never would.
Finally the elevator stopped and the doors slowly opened. He had barely stepped from the car when a shot or two rang out. He fired back. And his aim was better.
The pseudo-orderly dropped to the floor, clutching his bleeding arm. His gun dropped, too. Brendan kicked it aside as he hurried past the man. The orderly wasn’t the one who’d driven off with his family. He wasn’t the one with the grudge against Josie.
That man was already inside and he had nothing to lose. Running the plate had tied it